Tournaments

Seamaster Qatar 2016 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals

Dimitrij Ovtcharov keeps European hopes alive

09 Dec 2016

Asia very much in the ascendancy at the Seamaster Qatar 2016 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Doha; on the afternoon of Friday 9th December, the mantle of responsibility to keep European hopes in the Men’s Singles event alive rested on the shoulders of Germany’s Dimitrij Ovcharov.

The 28 year duly obliged; the no.8 seed, he accounted for Hong Kong’s Tang Peng, the no.14 seed, in five games (11-9, 11-5, 13-15, 14-12, 11-6) to reserve his place in the quarter-finals.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov who beat Tang Peng (Photo: QTTA)

by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Success and it was success as predicted, the two had met on eight previous occasions on the international scene, Tang Peng had won just once; in 2006, a decade ago when Dimitrij Ovtcharov was a teenager, he had prevailed at the ITTF World Tour Kuwait Open.

Clearly the German learned quickly. He won all the next seven encounters; most pertinently he emerged successful when the pair met two years ago at the semi-final stage of the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Bangkok and earlier this year at the ITTF World Tour German Open.

“I’m very satisfied with how I played today; my focus today was better than in recent matches, I think I was a step above my recent matches but still some way below my best. Certainly I felt confident against Tang Peng, I have a good record against him and maybe he doesn’t feel too confident playing me. Now it’s Fan Zhendong, I’ve not played against him a great deal but I practised with him for over an hour this morning”, Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

Success for Dimitrij Ovtcharov and that was very much the scenario as the first round Men’s Singles matches concluded.

Impressive performances, it was the somewhat the same although a little more hard earned for Chuang Chih-Yuan, the no.5 seed and like Chien Chen-An from Chinese Taipei. He beat Japan’s Yuya Oshima, the no.13 seed, in six games (11-8, 11-7, 10-12, 4-11, 11-4, 11-9).